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Via Transilvanica » A 1,400 km hike into the wilds of Eastern Europe

2024-08-05 / Downshift

The route was launched two years ago (it’s already the winner of a Europa Nostra Award recognising outstanding heritage conservation initiatives) and passes through some of Europe’s most traditional landscapes, rich in bears and wolves. It also ticks off 12 Unesco World Heritage sites and brings new life (and revenue) to remote, rural communities – communities that still scythe hay by hand, travel around by horse and cart and eat food they’ve grown themselves.

And crucially the route also connects some 18 different ethnic and cultural regions in the rich tapestry that constitutes modern-day Romania. Which is why it has been dubbed “the road that unites“.

Security plus Privacy » If you’re not paying, you are likely the product.

2024-07-12 / Downshift

In this video, IBM’s Jeff Crume explains the impact on user privacy and data security, and how organizations manage these concerns. He covers the importance of informed consent, transparency, and regulatory compliance in safeguarding personal information – and the critical distinctions, and relationship, between security and privacy in digital services.

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June 6, 2024 » the 80th Anniversary of D-Day » We Shall Remember Them

2024-06-06 / Downshift

80 years ago today, 160,000 troops from Britain, Canada, USA, —along with a dozen other nations— stormed five sandy beaches along the Normandy Coast, intending to liberate France and mainland Europe from Adolf Hitler’s tyranny.

The Canadian Encyclopedia says »

Juno Beach was the Allied code name for a 10 km stretch of French coastline assaulted by Canadian soldiers on D-Day, 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. The Canadian Army’s 3rd Infantry Division and 2nd Armoured Brigade seized the beach and its seaside villages while under intense fire from German defenders — an extraordinary example of military skill, reinforced by countless acts of personal courage. The 3rd Infantry Division took heavy casualties in its first wave of attack but took control of the beach by the end of the day. More than 14,000 Canadian soldiers landed or parachuted into France on D-Day. The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 110 warships and 10,000 sailors and the RCAF contributed 15 fighter and fighter-bomber squadrons to the assault. There were 1,074 Canadian casualties, including 359 killed.

Footage of Canadians landing on Juno Beach.

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Michael Richards on staying out of the spotlight

2024-06-05 / Downshift

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Bobbie Gentry » Ode To Billy Joe

2024-06-03 / Downshift

It was the third of June another sleepy dusty Delta day.

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More » Wikipedia

Jewish anti-Zionism in the U.S. and around the world

2024-06-02 / Downshift

Anti-Zionist Jews have formed a large part of the protests across the United States, and indeed the world, against Israel’s war on Gaza.

In this Al Jazeera’s interview and Simone Zimmerman, co-founder, IfNotNow, a Jewish advocacy group which opposes the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, we hear of her own transition away from Zionism forms the core of the 2023 award-winning documentary, Israelism.